Dawn of Victory - Total Conversion: Use the newer thread idiots.

Dawn of Victory (DoV) is a modification currently under development by Slipstream Productions for the RTS Sins of a Solar Empire. Dawn of Victory is a total conversion, replacing the game's original assets with completely new and diverse ships, structures, and gameplay elements. Dawn of Victory pits players as one of 3 intergalactic superpowers: the Democratic Federation, Greater German Reich, and the Soviet Union. These three factions wage war amongst themselves even as a greater threat, the Scinfaxi, threaten them all.

Story

While Dawn of Victory started out loosely based on Harry Turtledove’s “Worldwar” and “Colonization” book series, since then, the backstory has expanded to the point where it has taken on a life of its own.

For centuries an alien race known as the Scinfaxi had been the dominant power in the Orion region of space, their slow but steady expansion brought them into contact with dozens of other races, each one conquered and exterminated to provide the resources and material necessary to support the continually expanding empire.

In the 14th century, the first Scinfaxi probes reached Earth: it was surveyed, catalogued, and the plans were meticulously laid for its capture and assimilation. However, the Scinfaxi concept of time was very different from humanity's, and so when the first ships of the conquest fleet arrived in 1943, they were stunned to see Terran society had progressed to an industrial state in an unimaginable sliver of time. The initial landings took humanity by surprise, as the Scinfaxi advanced upon every continent.

It was in this darkest hour that what once divided humanity now brought it together, as the old prejudices were put aside and every free nation on Earth united against the alien aggressors. The tide turned in 1945 when the Soviet Union detonated an atomic bomb on its own soil, destroying a Scinfaxi landing site.

With the total conquest of Earth impossible without destroying everything of value, the Scinfaxi retreated to the Southern hemisphere, content with half the planet. Decades went by with no contact from the Scinfaxi, but as humanity grew bolder, the aliens' plans accelerated. As spacecraft from the last free nations made landfall, and eventually colonized new worlds, the Scinfaxi slowly began to advance. City after city was lost until, in a final act of desperation, the various Terran factions agreed to pursue a literal "scorched earth" policy, sacrificing their remaining positions to nuclear bombardment and quarantining the planet.

Humanity has expanded to the stars, and dozens of planets and moons now belong to the remaining Terran nations. There has been almost no contact with the Scinfaxi, and the former nations of Earth have become so complacent with their apparent safety that the old prejudices have returned and they once again war amongst themselves. The Scinfaxi are still expanding however, and it is only a matter of time before they decide to stamp out the potential usurpers; if humanity is allowed to advance another hundred years, it may be human soldiers landing on Scinfaxi worlds. The dawn of victory is approaching: the only question is which side will claim it.

DoV takes place in a world much like the one conceived by Harry Turtledove and his 'World War' series. The short story is: an alien race who is rapidly running out of resources marks multiple planets for 'capture.' One of these is, of course, Earth. This is around 1200 AD. After scanning what Earth had technology wise, the Conquest Fleet was launched. Now, the Scifaxi (as the aliens are called ) progress at a very, very slow scientific rate. So, when the Conquest Fleet lands to invade Earth circa 1943-44, they expected to be met with knights and bowmen. Instead, they are fighting a determined human race equipped with rifles and tanks. After losing the majority of the Southern Hemisphere, the war turns to favor the Humans around 1945 when the Soviet Union detonates an atomic weapon and destroys a Scinfaxi base. The Scinfaxi, unwilling to also resort to nuclear war for fear of destroying the entire planet, are forced to come to peace after the other major Earth powers also create and use nuclear weapons. With the technological advances captured from the Scinfaxi, the remaining Human nations enter a golden age. Around 2030, the major Human nations (Democratic Federation, Soviet Union, Greater German Reich) begin to launch colonies in space.

Now, it's 2084 and the human colonies are expanding more and more. Already eclipsed by the rapid Human expansion, the Scinfaxi are setting up to strike back...

If you'd be interested in watching the 'teaser trailer' put together that is the historical video of the invasion of Earth, here is the link.

Although if you really want to see some of the work that SSP has put together before, there are plenty of videos on YouTube of Halogen, their Halo RTS mod that was three years in the works and close to release when they received a Cease and Desist letter from Bungie. (Built to the Command and Conquer Zero Hour engine).

Really, I'm at the low end of the chain when it comes to knowing about major stuff, and I'm not entirely sure how it is laid out in SoaSE, so I can't draw a straight comparison. However, for 'backstory' purposes, there is a rather large map of the DoV universe created here. However, I'm not entirely sure what the scope will be when DoV is created for SoaSE. I'm sure that after the mod team is able to play it (hopefully in Beta 2) that you can get a positive answer on that.

It really depends on what we're offered. Since neither of us have played the beta, we don't really know the scale we're dealing with. An optimal scenario would be the entire galaxy, with a bunch of solar systems as secondary zoom levels like shown in the big map. If that is not possible, we will focus it on border skirmishes and smaller-scale attacks at a time with only a few solar systems visible at the min zoom. If that fails, it'll be planet by planet.

Or you could always just post in this topic and we'll be sure to get in touch with you.

EDIT: In addition, here's a couple of posters created by the absolutely amazing artist of the C&C Community, Godwin.

In addition, a couple wallpapers made by Godwin for DoV.

As you can see, SSP isn't only about making a mod. Instead, we want to immerse the player inside this universe. Because of this, we can accept people into the SSP team, even if they don't have much in the way of modding skills who may excel in other areas, such as art.

Just adding on to Stump's post. We are working on this mod currently, even though SoSE hasn't been released. If possible, it would be great to talk to someone who has the beta, just so we can figure out some of the gameplay mechanics. I know several of our staff, including myself have preordered, but it looks like we'll have to wait a bit for the next beta. Any help would be great.

How do you plan on dealing with a split planet in SoSE? SoSE planets are owned by a single faction and treated as a single entity, there is no way to cut it up to reflect the nature HT's alternatie history universe.

I have the beta and Im also familiar with your subject matter, I read the whole series from the first book/series thru to the end of the second series. Im dying to see how Germany rises back up after what happened. Certainly original in terms of making a mod for an IP I dont think anyone ever made before; I can certainly see why you guys started in EaW, I would think its hybird abilities of handling ground RTS and space RTS would be better suited than SoSEs engine given that alot of confilct is handled at the ground level in HT universe.

How do you plan on handling that? Or is the player(s) just a space commander?

DoV was really never about ground. Granted, a lot of our backstory takes place on the ground - but the modern day fight takes place across solar systems. Earth was "split up" after the Scinfaxi invasion, but eventually it was abandoned and nuked.

SoSE's engine is more to our liking, because EaW tried to do too many things at once and ended up having zero flexibility on one and poor base gameplay on the other. SoSE will let us have a more open-ended, real time, and larger-scale universe. In EaW we were only able to have specific battles at specific points above specific planets with specific gameplay mechanics. We hope to break away from that somewhat. Ground combat is not a concern at this point, as it was never really too much of a priority and we didn't want to let it interfere with the meat of the mod which is space combat.

Sorry for the bump, but we would like to get as many people to read this (especially now that Beta 2 is out) as possible. Slipstream Productions, and DoV in particular, is actively recruiting for a couple positions, specifically those of skinners and modelers. If you have any experience in either of those two fields (or any type of experience in modding at all!) please register at our forums or post here so we can contact you and gain your assistance in helping to finish this total conversion!

In addition, for those of you who may be interested in the 'backstory' of the modification, the full story can be found on the Autonomicon, Slipstream Production's recently launched Wikipedia. You can also find information on two of the other modifications that Slipstream is either working on, or completed.

If you think that you've got the goods and would like to join the Dawn of Victory team, feel free to register at this forum over here, place a reply on this page, or even contact one of the mod team! You can catch me at stumpster93720[at]gmail[dot]com.